Sweet Earth has been one of our go-to brands for vegetarian-friendly frozen burritos for as long as we can remember. We have fond memories of chomping down their Peruvian Burrito, and their Big Sur Burrito is quite the breakfast treat. But we’re not here to talk about burritos today. No, today we picked up the Sweet Earth Aloha BBQ Quesadilla to find out what it’s all about.
One box contains two quesadillas, and each is individually wrapped so you can eat them one at a time if you so choose. The box claims that one quesadilla is a snack while two are a decent lunch.
We’ve had a little trouble in the past with getting Sweet Earth quesadillas to cook properly using the cooking method described on the box, so we decided to switch things up a bit this time. We actually used El Monterey’s quesadilla cooking instructions for these. We stuck one quesadilla on a plate and covered it with a napkin, then we popped it into the microwave for about a minute. After that, we cooked it in a pan on medium heat for a few minutes per side. Our quesadilla came out just perfect.
Using our cook method, the outer shell gets nice and crispy. In our opinion, that’s exactly how a quesadilla shell should be.
The filling here is quite interesting. It’s an unexpected blend of ingredients that really works to give this that Hawaiian zing. We do think, however, that it doesn’t work for us completely.
This is a vegan-friendly meal, so obviously there’s not a hint of meat inside. Instead, there are vegan BBQ savory grounds. This is where our problems begin. The savory grounds themselves are fine — they don’t have a lot of flavor but they have a great, meaty texture — but we’re not big fans of the way the BBQ sauce tastes. It’s a little bitter, rather than sweet and tangy like a more traditional BBQ sauce.
There is some sweetness inside, thanks to the addition of pineapple chunks and pineapple juice. It’s not enough, however, to counteract the bitterness of that BBQ sauce.
There are also some pinto beans in this mix. While that might sound strange to some, it’s actually a great choice, and the beans actually complement the BBQ sauce quite well.
Some vegan dishes would skip the cheese altogether, but it’s really hard to get away with a cheese-less quesadilla, so this one uses vegan-friendly cheddar. We appreciate the effort, but we think we’d actually prefer a true cheddar here to the vegan version. We have a hard time giving up that stretchy, melty stuff we expect to find inside our quesadillas.
We also think these are a little thin for our taste. While other Sweet Earth quesadillas seem to have a bit more body to them, these ones look a bit like they’ve been run over by a truck.
One quesadilla contains 210 calories (60 from fat) and 320 mg, so the full box is 420 calories (120 from fat) and 640 mg of sodium. Even if you decide to eat two at a time, those numbers aren’t too bad. We wouldn’t exactly call these diet-friendly, but you can certainly justify eating two at a time without feeling guilty about it.
The Sweet Earth Aloha BBQ Quesadillas are pretty good, though we wouldn’t call them our favorite frozen quesadillas. We appreciate that Sweet Earth is trying something innovative while still appealing to their vegan audience, but we think a sweeter BBQ sauce would have really elevated these to true quesadilla perfection. As is, they’re still pretty tasty, so we can’t complain too much.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this Sweet Earth quesadilla, check out our package scans below.
